Youngstown Business Incubator sharpens industry scope

This entrance at the Youngstown Business Incubator’s new space provides access to Vista AST, which is one of the incubator’s portfolio companies. Vista is an educational technology and curriculum company for STEM education.

The Youngstown Business Incubator isn't just an incubator anymore. Nor are its services focused solely on Youngstown.

About 10 years ago, the established incubator was focused on supporting software startups, but its board realized it needed to tie its mission into manufacturing if it wanted to have a "greater impact" in the Youngstown region, said CEO Barb Ewing, who took on that role last May. It wasn't until 2012, when America Makes, the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute, joined the incubator's campus that the efforts started to solidify and take off.

Today, the incubator is poised to serve as a central location for companies in and out of Ohio that are interested in additive manufacturing, whether they want to make equipment for the growing field or take advantage of the technology as part of their supply chain.

Just last month, the incubator opened a renovated building focused on additive manufacturing, reflecting its expanded area of focus.

The building, its fifth, is 65,000 square feet and used to belong to the Youngstown Vindicator. There soon will be three additive manufacturing companies in the building at 29 Vindicator Square, with another already planned to join them in the coming months.

"Until the new building opened, we were bursting at the seams in here," Ewing said, which was going to restrict the number of new companies it could attract.

The incubator offers programs for entrepreneurs — including one specifically for women — in technology and advanced manufacturing, namely additive manufacturing or 3D printing, and boasts more than 60 portfolio companies. It recently was named a Minority Business Assistance Center and may soon begin working in the industrial Internet of Things space.

The budget and staffing for the Youngstown Business Incubator are evenly split between software and additive manufacturing, Ewing said. In total, they have 12 employees, but also work with contractors.

Despite the name, the incubator doesn't just serve Youngstown anymore. For example, it offers services through Jumpstart Inc. to a 21-county service area; for its work as a Minority Business Assistance Center, its coverage area runs from Ashtabula County to Monroe County. That approach makes sense because Youngstown isn't competing with cities like Cleveland or Pittsburgh when it comes to economic development opportunities anymore. The whole region is competing with far-flung locations like Chicago, Austin and Shanghai, Ewing said.

"None of us have as good of a story to tell individually as we do collectively," she said.

When the incubator started its work in additive manufacturing, the original assumption was that companies would be interested in using it as a step in their supply chain, making low-volume, customized products, Ewing said. But instead, the startups attracted to the programs have primarily been interested in making additive equipment and supplies for others to use.

The new building will house startup companies but also will provide support to companies that want to learn about additive manufacturing, in partnership with institutions like America Makes and Youngstown State University. The building will have a variety of equipment, like a new XJet ceramic and metal printer, to help companies better understand how they can use additive manufacturing in industrial applications, Ewing said.

"But it's always our goal to get companies to get their hands dirty," Ewing said. "We want to teach them how to use the pieces of equipment, to understand the design parameters, to actually understand additive at a higher level."

The incubator's first big step in this space was through an America Makes project related to the 3D-printing of sand cores for foundries. It worked with partners like Humtown Products in Columbiana to help others in the industry understand the new technology and how it would work.

"And from that first award, we've really developed deep capacity," Ewing said. "I think we probably understand that technology and its applications as well or better than anybody else in the world."

The next projects took on so-called hybrid manufacturing, which involves printing a product but then using traditional manufacturing processes to get it to the appropriate tolerances, and the production of low-volume tooling using additive. The incubator also has played a significant role in the Northeast Ohio Additive Manufacturing Cluster, which aims to make the region a recognizable hub for 3D printing, and recently was part of an award granted by the Burton D. Morgan Foundation to better provide commercialization services for additive manufacturing technology.

But it wasn't until a team from the incubator visited Israel that Ewing fully realized the "value proposition" it could offer additive manufacturing companies. She was speaking with a startup in Israel that's developed an electronic ink that can be used in screenprinting and 3D printing, telling the company about the services the incubator provides and the additive ecosystem in the region. Ewing said the company told her they wished they had that kind of support system in Israel.

In October, the incubator announced a formal partnership with The Junction, an Israeli business accelerator, designed to help technology startups there enter the U.S. market.

Tim Fahey, vice president for industry and innovation at Team NEO and an entrepreneur in residence at the incubator, said Ewing has done a good job establishing the incubator as an all-service center for additive manufacturing for companies in Northeast Ohio and for companies in that space that want to establish a location in the United States. Fahey said he recently spoke with some international additive manufacturing startups at a conference. They didn't have a U.S. presence, and the existence of the incubator gave him something to point to. He said he wishes there were more spots in the region that could offer a "soft landing spot" for startups and entrepreneurs like the incubator.

Ewing said she wants Northeast Ohio to become the "Silicon Valley" of additive manufacturing.

"I have always said that this can't be just a YBI story," Ewing said. "We need every player on the field. We need every economic development organization to understand how it can play a role. Every chamber of commerce preaching the gospel. Every school, every university. So we can facilitate. We can connect. In some instances, we can even implement. But if it weren't for our partners at Team NEO and America Makes and Magnet and YSU and Case, we wouldn't be anywhere."

MORNING ROUNDUP

Business headlines from Crain's Cleveland Business and other Ohio newspapers — delivered FREE to your inbox every morning. Sign up for the Morning Newsletter.